


Status quo

by Issay



Series: One-shot collection [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coffee Shops, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Difficult Decisions, Downworlders stick together, Male-Female Friendship, Multi, New York City
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-01-26
Packaged: 2018-09-20 02:34:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9471572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Issay/pseuds/Issay
Summary: A warlock and a banshee walk into a coffee shop...Life, death, courage and everything in between.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So: set after Teen Wolf series, pretty much ignoring whatever happens in s6; and somewhere in 2A of Shadowhunters. I don't really remember the books so it's as ambiguous as it can be.

_There’s  a storm on the horizon_ , whisper his nightmares every night. _There’s a change in the air and shadows are thickening. Run, Magnus, you smart boy, run and save yourself. Don’t look back. Don’t look back or everything is lost_.

He wakes up with the sound of their laugh still ringing in his ears and has to go outside, cold tiles of his balcony soothing his skin as he slumps against the wall and listens to the city. He has no idea how long it takes for him to finally get up and head back inside. Maybe an hour, maybe the whole night. The sun is rising.

Magnus knows that the next night won’t be any different. Or the next.

“I should leave,” he says couple of days later to the girl he’s met some time ago, she would have been a great material for a protégée if she wasn’t so completely self-reliant. Lydia’s elegant eyebrows twitch as she adds brown sugar to her coffee.

“You’re afraid of what’s coming,” she states. “It’s absolutely normal, Magnus, even if one is an old and powerful being. Maybe… Maybe especially when one if so old and powerful.”

“And you’re not scared?” he asks. Maybe he wants to feel better at her expense, maybe he needs to reassure himself that he’s not alone in this. Lydia smiles sweetly.

“Honey, I’m a banshee. I can sense that something is coming and that it’s going to be bad but what do I have to be afraid of? It’s not the small supernatural town I survived eighteen years in. You’re the only not-human that knows about me here. The Clave doesn’t care about my type of beings, we’re not even bound by the Accords. In New York, I’m utterly inconsequential so I can hide and wait for the storm to pass.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have…”

She takes his hand, halting the words coming out of his mouth.

“It’s fine. So why don’t you leave? Why not go someplace warm and safe, and wait for others to deal with Valentine? Come on, Magnus. Tell me.”

He’s silent for a long moment, only the soothing sounds of the rainy afternoon in a downtown coffee shop around them but he doesn’t let go of her hand. What a pair they are – a gorgeous redhead dressed in a deep green full-circle skirt and a corset-like shirt, gold on her wrists and neck; he with his amulets and sparkly make-up, mournful black clothes. They’re strange and beautiful at the same time, people stare at them but they pay them no mind.

“Only cowards run.”

The banshee snorts and tightens her hold on him.

“Oh, honey, you will guilt-trip yourself into fighting, won’t you? If you’re running because you’re so scared you can’t even think, that makes you a coward but cowardice is normal, Magnus, it’s sane and it’s instinctual, it makes our species survive. Cowards survive. Heroes die.”

“Is that why you left Beacon Hills?”

She lets out a quiet, humming-like sound, deep in thought. Eventually, she shakes her head.

“There was nothing left for me there,” she says, her voice gentle and filled with unspeakable longing, something Magnus recognizes all too well. “I’ve held on for so long… I’ve buried friends and I made miracles happen. I’ve seen monsters come to life and good people die in a war that wasn’t theirs but they fought in it anyway. I had this friend, you see. Stiles. It wasn’t really his name but… Oh, nevermind. Anyway, Stiles was that bright, optimistic kid in the beginning. He was the wide-eyed kind. But then things happened, our friends died or changed or left us behind, and before we knew what happened, it was only the three of us clinging to each other. Stiles, me and Scott. Scott is still there, you see. He’s trying to build a pack, be a good Alpha, protect the town. But Stiles couldn’t take it anymore, he couldn’t be immersed in that darkness. It’s different for Scott because he has his claws to protect himself, or me, because I always know what will happen. But Stiles? It could swallow him whole. So one day he snapped.”

“What happened?” asks Magnus, not really willing to ask and not really wanting to hear her reply. Lydia’s smile is bitter like his coffee.

“I don’t know. He disappeared. No magic can find him – believe me, I’ve tried everything, and his dad refuses to say where he went. I have my suspicions. There was a guy Stiles had a thing for who pulled this kind of disappearing act few years before. I choose to believe that they live in South America somewhere together, it’s…easier to forgive myself.  Anyway, after that, I packed a bag and never looked back.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

She finally breaks the hold and takes a sip of her coffee.

“It was simple. I severed everything that tied me to that place. My mom moved to LA, I see her every couple of months. Peter… Well, Peter Hale is known for making a damn nuisance of himself but he trailed here after me and moved into an apartment next door. And I call Scott from time to time. Do you think I’ll know when he’s dead?”

“I think it’s well within the limit of your abilities, yes.”

Lydia’s quiet for a long while, people move around them, pass them, watch them. She blinks back the tears and smiles bravely.

“So I can call without fearing one of his Betas will inform me of his death, then. Anyway, Magnus… You have three choices here. You can try and keep pretending that the status quo is still there, that you can stay still and survive this. You can run and hide, leave your pretty, pretty boy behind to die because you know he will fight, and maybe get someone to wipe your memories of him because this will shatter you. Or you can face it. Maybe you’ll fail, so what. Maybe you’ll win. How much is that status quo worth, Magnus?”

He looks outside and for a moment envies those mundane, ordinary people who don’t have to make any life or death decisions and don’t carry the weight of the world on their shoulders. But then he realizes that neither does he, at least – not alone. He thinks about his magnificent Alexander and his spitfire of a sister, or the brave but scared Clary and of Jace, doomed from the start.

He thinks of the nameless, faceless men and women who will fight Valentine because if they won’t, no one will and he feels ashamed of himself.

Lydia smiles.

“So, you’ve made your decision.”

Magnus smiles – really smiles for the first time in days and banishes the memory of whispering nightmares.

“Screw the status quo. It was getting boring anyway.”

She salutes him with her mug, and the first ray of sunshine on this rainy day hits her hair, suddenly filling the world in front of him with color.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Find me on tumblr!](http://issayscorner.tumblr.com/)


End file.
